Firedrake
by Snakelady Frohike
Summary: Terry and Max find a creature of myth in the heart of Gotham Part I


Firedrake:  
Batman Beyond  
By: Brenna "Snakelady" Dawkins  
Part I: It's Alive!  
  
Spoilers: None  
Characters: Terry, Max, Bruce Wayne, Batman, and the Joker gang are all owned by Warner Brothers and DC comics, Skymouth is my character  
Rating: PG 13  
Summary: Terry and Max make an amazing discovery, having no idea what they just got themselves involved in.  
  
Terry raised his eyebrows, "Come ON, Max, a circus?" That was not where he wanted to spend one of his few precious days off.   
  
"Oh, come on, Ter, it's not like I'm asking you to get a root canal done." Max dragged him into the colorful gates of the circus that had come to town. "This is the world famous Garti Circus, they travel all over the globe, picking up exotic animals and put them on display. I think it's great for inner city kids to get a chance to see creatures they may never get to see in their life time except for maybe on the vid."  
  
Terry walked past the first cage in a row of cages where an unhappy looking jaguar paced back and forth, staring out at nothing. Yeah, Terry thought to himself, it's a real great place. There were many rows of such cages. The place was filled with the grunts and growls of the caged animals mingled with the clamor of the crowd of gawking people. And the smell was less than note worthy.  
  
Once they perused each cage in each row, Max offered up some of her credits for a large popcorn that they shared.   
  
"Too bad Dana had to go visit her cousins in Pennsylvania. I think she might have liked to come." Max said through a mouthful of popcorn.  
  
"A wild animal kept in a cage against their will doesn't sound like her cup of tea to me. She wont even visit a zoo." Terry said, grabbing a large handful of popcorn.  
  
Max sighed and shook her head. "They're only in cages for a few weeks. When their touring is over with, they're released back out into the game reserves. That's the Garti way. A zoo animal spends its entire lifetime in an enclosure."  
  
"Enclosure. That's a nice way of putting it." Terry replied.  
  
"Hey, what's in that big tent?" Max grabbed Terry's arm and led him. It was huge, bigger than the main tent where all the acts take place. When they got to the entrance flap, they noted the Visitors Keep Out sign slung across it. And beyond the flap, because a keep out sign only sparked curiosity in Max instead of disappointment, was a barred door and it was locked.  
  
"Oh well. Come on, let's go to the big top." Terry said hoping to divert her.  
  
"It's a Karmax 1600 series lock." Max said after she inspected the door. "I can get around that easy as pie. I just happen to have this." She pulled out a digital lock pick from her purse.  
  
Terry rolled his eyes. "This is breaking and entering, you know. People have gone to jail for such things."  
  
"Relax. Where's your since of adventure? And besides, I got Batman here to say I've got probable cause." Max tisked.  
  
"Which is...? Now you're going to make me an accessory to the fact."  
  
"Hey, what are friends for?" Max smiled and the lock mechanism came free. "Aren't you glad you keep me around?"  
  
Terry sighed and followed Max into the restricted tent. He bumped into her because she stopped short. "Hey, Max, warn a guy."  
  
"That's the shwayest animatronic figure I've ever seen!" Max gushed and raced to the mammoth, scaled and horned head.   
  
Terry gave it a good once over and noted it even had the digitronics to make it appear to breath. "I've seen more realistic looking reptiles in Jurassic Park 17."  
  
"Oh, Terry! It's not a dinosaur... it's a dragon! So cool!" She edged up to the giant eye that was closed. Even through it's closed lid, she could see that the eye could encompass her head, her torso, and down to her knees. "Why isn't this piece on display?"  
  
"I don't know, but we better leave before we're discovered." Terry said unhappily.  
  
She noticed the wires and hoses attached to the head and followed them to the source, interested in finding the apparatus that operated the huge animatronic figure. She found a huge machine that was working very hard.  
  
Max was perplexed. "This isn't the kind of machine used for animatronics, this is a life-support system found in hospitals but it's heavy duty industrial sized."   
  
Frowning, Terry went to investigate the apparatus. "It's got enough chemical cocktails to put a whole herd of elephants asleep." He noted the readouts. "This is weird."  
  
Max turned back to the dragon from where she was, her eyes suddenly widening and voice hushed, "I have a bad feeling about this. I don't think that's animatronic."  
  
Terry made a disparaging sound. "Oh, get off it, Max. If it isn't animatronic then that would make it real."  
  
"Ter!" That sound came out strangled and Terry looked around at what alarmed Max. The eye, that huge eye was now open and the pupil dilated to take them in for there was not much light to be had in the tent. "It... it woke up."  
  
Terry and Max froze, like mice caught in a snakes dazzling gaze. Max gripped Terry's arm as tight as she could and buried half her face in his shoulder. Behind them, the machine chugged back to life, its sensors aware of the change in the dragons state.   
  
"What do we do?" Max whispered into Terry's ear.  
  
"We move slowly to the door and get the hell out of here." Terry whispered back.  
  
The thing's gaze never wavered off of them even as they slowly edged around to the only avenue of escape. They were almost there when it moved its head, only slightly and made a sound. It sounded like a great, gusting sigh and even to Terry it sounded sorrowful almost on the verge of pitiful.   
  
"Wait." He held his hand up and stopped.   
  
"Ter, what do you think your doing?" Max looked at him like he was crazy.  
  
"This doesn't look like your Garti way to me, Max. This is inhumane. How did they manage to find and capture a dragon? You can bet they don't plan on releasing this thing out on any reserve." He said to her, keeping his eyes on the creature and it kept its eyes on them, its huge, yellow unblinking orbs drinking them in. Like they were its last hope? Maybe.  
  
Max gave a frightened sound as Terry made a move towards the blue beast again. She had a hold of his sweater sleeve and he pried her fingers off of it. He then moved as slowly as possible and had his hands out in front of him with palms up in a defenseless gesture that he hoped was universal and one that the creature understood. Max stayed where she was, as if she were wearing magnetized soles. As Terry slowly but steadily moved forward, he gave the dragon a closer look over. He then noticed the dried blood on the floor around the stomach area and knew the creature must have been hurt severely at one time. Did the Garti people do that or did they come upon the dragon already hurt and capture it that way? The second possibility seemed more likely. He figured it would be difficult to subdue such a creature.  
  
And in its wounded state, they pump it full of enough drugs to keep it subdued. The drugs slow down the healing process and it lies there like a nice, unresponsive dragon. That thought made Terry angry. He was certain that he had guessed right. He made up his mind that no creature deserved to be treated like this, even something as potentially dangerous as a dragon.  
  
He supposed the first thing he ought to do was to unplug it from the machine.  
  
"Max, I'm going to remove these wires and hoses." He warned his friend what he was going to do.  
  
"Terry, don't be crazy! I take back what I said about your lack of adventure, okay? Let's get out of here and forget this whole thing!" She was frightened.   
  
"I can't leave this creature like this." I just can't, he repeated to himself and reached to the hoses that sprouted like plastic mane around and behind the dragon's huge earflap. It was a slow process and he had a moment's hesitation before he used the ear to hoist himself up on the monsters head to remove the hard to reach hoses. The machine coughed and sputtered in confusion as it was released from its subject and as each hose was removed; it automatically stopped pumping the chemicals that induced sleep so they wouldn't be wasted in a spray.  
  
All the while he was doing this the dragon remained very still. When he started to climb down, his foot slipped on one of the blue scales and it swished its earflap under him and he grabbed hold of the helpful appendage.  
  
"Uh, thanks." He told it. At least it seemed aware that he was trying to help it.  
  
It was a short jump to the ground then and he stepped back a few paces so that he could get more than just a wall full of scales as part of his horizon.   
  
He thought for a moment then said, "Blink once if you understand me."  
  
The lids fluttered shut then reopened. A positive response, this thing was more than just some dumb animal. Who knew just how intelligent it was? He was betting it was going to be full of surprises. He wondered how long it would be before it would recover and what it would do when it did. He decided he didn't want to be around for that.  
  
"Terry, okay, let's get out of here!" Max called nervously to him.  
  
"Well, I guess you can probably take things from here. Good luck to you." He saluted the dragon who watched him and he and Max slipped out, leaving the circus.  
  
  
Two days later, Terry was back on the job. The Stalker hurled a javelin at his head and he fell backwards to dodge it, not his most elegant move of the day. He somersaulted backwards as the Stalker charged him, holding a spear that had sharpened metal blades at both ends. He spun the weapon over his head like a baton and leapt towards his prey.   
  
Batman blocked with his feet upraised and kicked upwards as the Stalker fell upon him. The Stalker grunted as he was heeled in the chest and Batman flipped him over his head and the Stalker rolled away. Batman leapt back up to a stance as the Stalker rolled to his feet. They squared off like that for a few seconds, waiting for the other to move first. An explosion a building away rocked the building top they were fighting on. They were both thrown off their feet. Batman swung around to see what got blown up.  
  
"Who interrupts our battle?" The Stalker demanded and walked up to Batman's side as if they hadn't just been trying to kill each other.  
  
"You got me," Batman scowled and switched his viewer to ultraviolet to see through the plumb of smoke. Nothing. "We'll settle this later, Stalker." Batman extended his wings and activated his heel jets and leapt off the building, aiming towards the newest action in town.  
  
A flying sedan almost rammed him from behind. It was painted purple. Joker gang! So, at least he knew who blew up the chemical plant. He harried the sedan as it flew under a skyway. He was on its tail as if he was a part of it. A passenger window lowered and an arm stuck out. Attached to the arm was a machine gun and it fired a rapid volley after him. He put on the afterburners in his heel jets and swept under the sedan. With his razor claws, he attached himself to the underside of the chasse and crawled his way up to the front. Once at the front, he ripped the grill away and pulled out the radiator, flinging it away from the car. Then he let go of the vehicle and watched as it overheated and coasted to a halt on a nearby platform.  
  
When he was certain where it would land, he dove after it. Six clowns got out, all armed like they were Iraq's last line of defense.  
  
"Hey, it's the freak!" Called one of them. "Here's a gift from me to you, Batbait!"   
  
They let loose a barrage of fire and Batman had to think fast to dodge it all. Suddenly, shots rained on him from yet another direction on an upper level ramp. He hadn't expected it and cried out as a bullet buried itself into his right thigh. It felt like his leg was on fire and he wondered if it hit the bone. If it did, it was sure to be broken. He tumbled to the ground, and tried to stand despite the crippling pain. The suit might take the burden for him. He tried to put some weight on it and almost toppled over. He grit his teeth.  
  
The Joker gang laughed at him and advanced with their weapons fearlessly drawn. "You see, we got you covered, you're going down, Batsy!" One of the clowns snarled.  
  
"I may be down, but I'm not out. Besides, haven't you Clowns ever heard of a bat outta Hell?" He swung two batarangs at the group. They laughed at his attempt and continued their advance when the ramp suddenly blew up above them. The gang looked startled and Batman wondered if it was somehow the Stalker. He and the Stalker may be rivals, but the Stalker had some honorable traits, for a bad guy anyway. Then another sedan swooped down on them, covering them with a flamethrower blast.   
  
The Joker gang scattered to dodge the blast and Batman laid flat to the ground. The sedan pulled to a hovering stop beside him and the passenger door swung open. A blonde haired girl was at the wheel and motioned for him to get in. Considering the situation, he decided it wasn't such a bad idea. Batman leapt into the sedan and they sped away before the Joker gang could regroup.  
  
"Thanks." He muttered through the pain.  
  
The blonde looked at him, nodded and smiled and continued to drive. He couldn't be taken to the hospital and he couldn't be taken to Mr. Wayne's because it would reveal too much about Batman. And he couldn't go home either. He could think of only one place. Max's.  
  
"If you could let me off at that apartment complex," he pointed to the left, "I'll be even more grateful."  
  
"Anything for you, Batman." She said smiling.  
  
Batman gave her a sideways glance at that, uncertain as to what he should say.  
  
"Um, have we met?" He really didn't recall it if they had.  
  
"Yes." Was all she said.  
  
Glad we cleared that up, he thought to himself sarcastically. She obviously was not in the mood for small talk. That's okay, he was in too much pain to oblige if she had wanted to talk. She dropped him off and just before he got out, he looked over at her.  
  
"I never caught your name."   
  
She was quiet for a moment then shrugged, "You can call me Skymouth."  
  
When she sped away, he fired his jets and spread his wings so that he flew up to Max's bedroom window. She was sitting on the bed studying when she heard a tap on the glass. That didn't startle her anymore. She just leaned over and opened up the window for Batman and went back to her books. Batman climbed in, favoring his right leg.  
  
"Ter, you really got to work on your timing. It's midterm, ya know." She hadn't even looked at him yet.  
  
"Got any tweezers?" He asked her.  
  
"Yah, in the bathroom, why, you got a sliver?" She joked.  
  
"Just gotta pull out a bullet, no biggie." He said in a similar manner.  
  
That got Max's attention. She jumped off the bed and wrestled him to a chair. "You dummy! I thought Mr. Wayne taught you how to dodge!" She angrily inspected the wound. It was bleeding badly. "I'll take you to Wayne manor."  
  
At Bruce's place, he was placed on a med table and a med droid removed the bullet and set his broken leg. He was lounging on the sofa, his leg in a half splint and sipping some tea with Max as Mr. Wayne watched grimly over them.  
  
"And this strange woman you've never seen before helped out Batman?" He asked Terry.  
  
Terry nodded.  
  
"I wonder what her angle is." Bruce said almost to himself.  
  
"Maybe she's a fan?" Terry said trying to be helpful.   
  
That just won him one of Bruce's 'looks'.   
  
"Not many people have flamethrower attachments added to their vehicles." Max said, suddenly coming online.  
  
Bruce grinned as he caught what she was leading to, "Get on it."  
  
"Get on what?" Terry asked.  
  
"You got a name, a description of her car, and a very specialized weapon, finding out who she really is should be no problem." Bruce said.  
  
"And with me on the job, it's as good as done." Max replied. She pulled out her laptop and started searching.  
  
"All I got on her is a bunch of classified gobbledy gook." Max said frowning after an intense search. "She's something special to the DOD."  
  
Bruce and Terry looked at each other. That was odd.  
  
"She works for the Department of Defense? Can you tell us anything about what she does or is that classified too?" Bruce asked Max.  
  
"One moment." Many moments ran past as she tried to pry into the secret places of the nations security grid. She shook her head. "I can't get through the firewall. If I try to dig in further, it'll tapeworm and my hard drive will crash big time. Sorry." She turned off her computer.  
  
Well, at least they had turned up something, Terry thought. He and Max had agreed to not tell Mr. Wayne about the dragon. He wasn't so sure his boss would believe him anyway. He still had trouble coming to grips with it himself. And he had heard no word on the matter since. No great beast sightings at all. He had to wonder if it was too hurt to escape. Well, he had tried to do the right thing. There was only so much he could do. The dragon had to help itself now. And good luck to it, he thought.  
  
To Be Continued..... 


End file.
